TwoToned Purple
by kkann
Summary: Lately, Jak's been feeling strange, but going to Torn and Daxter for help may not have been the best idea - especially when the girl in question and everyone else shows up. Of course, it wouldn't've been so awkward had he not been in ...'heat? D/JxK
1. A Not So Brilliant Poker Face

**A/N: **Gah, me and updates fail when we're supposed to work together. And Word apparently doesn't like to finish writing stuff even after I ask it to nicely.  
But I think I've taken far too long in adding something new. Like I really should. I already told myself I was going to finish the first story I put here, and that last chapter's only half-way done. (Gah, fail again.) (Oh, and speaking of which, I've decided to split 'Stuck' 's Chapter 3 into two-parts. Maybe that'll mean I'll finish it quicker. WOO! I'm so excited you have no idea. xD But I'm sad too.)

Hmm. Like I really need to be adding another unfinished project here. I'll finish this though, it's only a two-shot. (That originally started as a one-shot but got too long. ;P)

My title here is debatable. Why can I never think of titles for Jak & Daxter stories?! :L ....It's a metaphorical title. If you get it then, um.....you get a cookie. :D

_Staring: _Dark Jak. (mwahah :D)

Because I was playing with Dark Jak in Jak II and now I want to unlock Unlimited Dark Jak but I need more orbs to do it because I feel like you don't get to play with Dark Jak long enough with that little bit of dark eco you collect and I love Dark Jak and I want to play as Dark Jak and...

-Ahem.- Hey, all you _really gotta know_ for this lil' story is that I'm a die-hard JakxKeira fan (or DarkJakxKeira, if ya wanna see it like that. ;D), aaaannnddd...

**Heat:** typically describes an animal that is in a state of... 'excitement' and ready to breed. (MWAHahaha XD)

Yes. Indeed. (I debate if this shoud be 'M' instead. It's just innuendo, and nothing really happens, so...)

* * *

_The Term 'Awkward' Just Took On A Whole New Meaning..._

"You've got to be kidding me."

Jak's face was soon buried in his hands, accompanied by the not so delicate _thwack _of the skin of his palm coming into contact with that of his face. Torn let out a deceivingly neutral "huh-huh" while the younger released his breath both loudly and exasperatedly. The furriest of the three situated around a dimly-lit table in the equally dim establishment vainly attempted not to snicker at his friend's ordeal.

"It's really not that funny," Jak muttered after a moment, wanting to cut off the laughter before it truly began. One of his hands left his face to drum its appendages on the table for lack of anything better to do –though it may also have merely been to keep himself preoccupied- while the other rose from his cheek to his forehead, the heel of his palm poking into his eye before he moved it.

"No, he's right." Torn said after clearing his throat a few times. Daxter gave him a pointed look with a smirk clearly still on his face. The blond boy was about to utter an appreciative "thank-you" before Torn spoke again. "It's actually hilarious."

Daxter let out the roar of laughter he'd been withholding as he plopped down on the table of the booth, nearly knocking his drink over. The tattooed man had to set down his to avoid the risk of spilling it as he chuckled to a slightly lesser degree than the ottsel. Jak stared down at his own glass, folding his arms on the surface of the table, attempting to set fire to the liquid with his irritated gaze.

Only a week after he'd managed to destroy the Dark Maker-ship –for all they knew, and now this? Precursors, couldn't this have happened earlier, or better yet, after this whole ordeal was over with, seeing as there were still rouge robots and Metalheads? No, couldn't it not have happened at _all_?

Not only was this, well, _uncomfortable_, to say the least, but he had expected some helpful advice or some 'well, sorry to hear that' look from the other two. In the long run however, he knew he should have seen this coming.

But still.

Daxter's appendix threatened to burst as he laughed uproariously. Torn was the first of the two to calm himself enough to speak again. Jak could sense that inwardly, he still wanted to continue laughing at what the young man had told him.

"So," He took a breath as he cracked a smile, forcibly taking another deep breath. Daxter chose now to be a good time to cut in.

"Wait, you've had this thing for 'bout three years, and just _now _this, ah," He paused, unsure of what words to use. "_Other thing_," He nodded, that seemed to fit for now. "Shows up? Why didn't it before?"

"That's a good question." Torn mused, evidently having swallowed most of the guffaws he originally wanted to release. "Why hasn't it? I mean, it's not like this sort of thing only happens every few years. I'm pretty sure it's annual. Like once a year maybe at the most."

"Doesn't explain why though." Daxter offered, his words partially interrupted with his shaking.

"Look," Jak began, picking his head up from where it had been resting on his arms. "I don't know _why_, I don't know _when_, and I can barely begin to explain _how_-"

The looks he received from his comrades were anything but supportive. In fact, in that instant, he was wondering what would happen if he knocked their heads together. They were probably hollow, so there would presumably be an echoing noise. Torn soon shrugged and cut in, seemingly unbothered.

"I don't know, I'm not the expert here. You could try to figure it out for yourself, I guess, but look where that's gotten you." Jak didn't feel like answering that. Where had he gotten? No where. Two of the few people he thought he could trust in the entire world let alone the crumbling city had listened to what he'd said and laughed at him. That's where he'd gotten.

"Maybe you could…" Daxter gazed at the ceiling, waving one hand in the air as he thought up some hair brained scheme while the other sloshed the ottsel's drink around dangerously by the front of Jak's tunic. The ottsel's fingers snapped as he pointed at his best friend. "Go for it. See what happens. It could be worth a laugh or two, or you could, you know, actually get somewhere."

"And hey," Torn supplied, a small smirk on his thin lips. "In a week you'll look back on this and laugh."

_Or I'll be buried six feet underground thanks to an angry, short, green man. Or turning over rocks and other random places looking for the dignity I'll end up losing. Definite win-win, eh buddy?_

"Yeah," The orange half-weasel continued, as if the tattooed man next to him hadn't said anything. "And there might just be the chance that you won't be, laughing _alone_, if ya know what I mean." He winked, excluding the 'hint-hint, wink cough' ending they all knew was there.

Partially. Jak knew Daxter well enough to know that it was a not-so subtle innuendo. He just didn't know if he wanted to understand the rest of it.

There was a fairly sizable _thump _as the hero's head came into contact with the table, the impact significant enough to jostle the single pendant lamp hanging above their heads, causing his cohorts to glance up at it as the bulb flickered. He was given a pitying 'what can you do?' look by the orange fur ball before he took a swig, looking around his bar in a haughty manner.

Hadn't he told the Tattooed Wonder to get his war junk out of there? Sure most of the maps and such had been taken down, and the eco-powered weapons and ammunitions had been replaced by the artifacts that had originally resided in the same area, yet there were still a few other trinkets lying about. And then there was the communications and hologram board taking up most of the floor space to be accounted for.

What about the giant Metalhead head? Where was Kor's ugly mug? Used for target practice? Or taken down simply because it was too hideous or was starting to smell because it was, after all, a decaying head that had not been properly prepared for hanging on a wall?

Breaking out of his reverie Daxter looked back down at his best friend, who was currently lamenting his woes and plastering his face to the table.

"Sucks to be you, huh?" Jak groaned in response to his companion's muttering. The ex-Krimzon Guard shook his head, taking a drink of his own, thinking of some 'words of wisdom' to offer to his best fighter and close friend.

"Maybe it's because you're calmer now." Torn considered, appearing to have chosen his words carefully while Jak tested his theory of 'if one pushes their head hard enough against a table, the table with engulf their head and possibly the rest of their body.' By the time the older man finished his statement the boy had peeled his forehead away from the sticky surface.

"How am I _calmer _now when I have no idea what the hell is going on and I just blew up some gigantic ship that was threatening the entire planet -no maybe _the universe _even- a week ago?" The young man growled before his nose was once more mashed into the table. "How am I _calm _when right now all I want to do is find her and-"

He thought it safer not to finish the rest of that sentence. Torn continued on as if what Jak had said held little importance.

"No, that's true." He stroked his jaw with his hand. "What I meant was now that there are only a few Metalheads and Deathbots left you don't have much to do, other than rebuild the city, which you may or may not be doing. Last year you were either running around the Pumping Station shootin' everything or hanging out in the gun course, shooting everything else." Torn paused as Jak forced his nose back into shape. "Honestly, you live kind of a sad life." He continued speaking through Jak's glare without missing a beat.

"And earlier this year you were shipped out into the Wasteland by yourself, more or less-" A thin hand was waved in Daxter's general direction with an irate glare from said ottsel. "-And spent most of your time there shooting things when you weren't here in Haven shooting our enemies while you were trying to save the world, nevermind our 'fair' city."

"Plus," Daxter decided it was time to add his two-sense, albeit this time it seemed as if rational thought had actually been given, a shock really. "You never really saw her during the second war here. The first one, sure, and even a little bit after that, before we got our butts banished. You _did _see her every time we went to the HQ; don't think I didn't see the way you were looking at her then." He added the last observation coyly, poking fun at Jak's predicament. The hero would refuse to admit it, but there was no way to deny the slight blush that had spread across his nose and cheeks.

"Do you just shoot everything?" Torn inquired, thinking back to what he'd said. Either Jak chose to ignore this or didn't hear it, as he'd been dwelling on what his childhood friend had said.

_Don't think I didn't see the way you were looking at her… Maybe it's because you're calmer now…All I want to do is find her and-_

"Once we finally came back to the city, it was like the first time you'd seen her in a year." Daxter said, placing his drink next to himself as he sat. "Maybe that started the whole grand-hoo-hah-ha rebellion your mind's got goin' on."

Neither Jak nor Torn fully understood what he'd just said, though they got the gist of it.

"Although, it might not be you're…er _mind_ya know…" This had Torn all but sputtering out his drink in laughter. Daxter snickered continually as Jak forcibly restrained himself from plastering his face to the table once more. Torn was smacking his palm on the table as Ashelin and Tess made their entrance, the ottsel propped precariously on the red-head's thin shoulder, unaccustomed to not walking on her own two feet.

"What's so funny?" Ashelin inquired as Tess leapt to the hologram board in the middle of the room, finding a flatter surface safer than one of the governess' appendages. Sig had come in as well, although it was seemingly a random coincidence he was there -though it later turned out he had come to ask Tess for access to the gun course, something he wouldn't get around to doing until much later that evening.

"Nothi-"

"Jak's in heat."

The bulb in the pendant lamp flickered before it died as Jak's head left an indent in the table.

Daxter was going to die for that. Well, perhaps not die exactly, seeing how he was Jak's best friend, so he couldn't necessarily _kill _him. Maybe just hurt him. Very, _very _badly. A lot. The boy could dream, couldn't he?

"I thought only animals ever-" Tess was interrupted by Torn, who then received the brunt of her annoyed glare.

"Nah, it's not _Jak _exactly. More like that…" He paused, glancing at the bruise beginning to form on Jak's forehead. The pair of goggles splayed on the table next to him had curiously taking little damage, despite his repeated head bashing in the table. Daxter nudged one of the lenses unconsciously with his foot. "Jak's other half, quarter thing. Ah, who knows what we're calling it now." He muttered, turning his hand into a fist. "Jak's other half is in heat apparently, and it wants K-"

"I am not in heat." Jak shot back, his eyes narrowing at those who had laughed at him in turn, going from Daxter to Torn, to Tess, to Ashelin, and finally Sig, who's mighty shaking frame made it appear as if the Metalhead partial exoskeletons were laughing at him as well.

"Besides, that _thing_? It's still me. Me, myself, and I. There are no multiple-personalities, no being overshadowed, and yes, maybe sometimes I have to fight for control over it, but it's _Dark Eco _I'm fighting with, not some demonic mutant thing that wants to go on a rampage. Even though sometimes it might as well be, and I do think that you know, it actually might be… some other…_thing _I'm fighting with. Sometimes. It depends. I guess."

There was a pause as this registered in everyone's heads, including the hero's.

"Oh my god I'm in heat." Jak looked like some poor animal just before it was hit by an on-coming vehicle. And then promptly proceeded to look like it after the fact.

The gears began whirring once more after a few moments of Jak contemplating the fact yes, it did appear that he was 'in heat' as it were. Dark Eco may not have been the only thing injected into his bloodstream, they soon learned.

"Well, if he's 'in heat' like you say, then why hasn't he, you know," Tess coughed into her new 'paw' rather than hand while Ashelin uncharacteristically fidgeted under the scrutinizing gaze aimed in her and Tess' direction from the men in the room –minus one further bruising his head and sanity. "Come on to either of us? And what about you two? You've been near him for a while."

"Because he knows if he does, I won't hesitate to kill him." Torn honestly replied, making no effort to hide his threat. Jak couldn't help but feel slightly insulted at what Tess had said.

He wasn't some mangy crocadog or some other kind of animal. He had no unconscious plans to go around and well, _do things_ to random strangers or inanimate objects. Honestly, what did they take him for?

And he also knew that he was as good as dead if he so much as tried to high-five one of the other women right then. Torn and Daxter would see to that. The former was still a bit perturbed over the exchange between Jak and Ashelin in the desert.

"It-I mean, _I _won't. I mean…" For the first time in days Jak found himself stuttering, unable to say what he wanted. "It …claimed _her_, sort of." From the looks he was getting this information was obviously not exactly sufficient enough for them, though that didn't keep them from snickering at him. Ashelin covered her mouth and coughed. "No, then- that means I, well no, _it_…_It_ only wants…her?"

It was bad enough to have to admit that the only way he could get himself to realize he 'liked' a certain someone was by going through 'heat' like some animal. It was only worse when Daxter's jaw dropped to the floor and all but rebounded and smacked him in the face. Ashelin and Tess mimicked his expression while Jak was given a dumbfounded gaze by Torn and Sig.

"W-well, hey," He rose his hands in an attempt to persuade them back to his side. "It's not like I'm going to-"

"-There you are." There was a collective hush as Keira coincidentally made her entrance through the Naughty Ottsel's constantly opening front door very few Haven citizens seemed to use. Each footfall of hers seemed to take eons as Ashelin gauged Jak's reaction. By the time Keira reached the hero's side Tess thought she'd faint from holding her breath for such an extended period of time.

"I've been looking for you everywhere." Keira continued, placing her hands on her hips. "Never mind the fact that half of the Industrial Section looks like Daxter's room on a good day." –Daxter interjected a quiet 'hey' as she said this.- "Anyway…You called earlier and said your JET-board was having a few problems, so I thought you were-"

Sig wasn't the only one who's noticed Jak's eyes go black.

Keira, on the other hand had been adjusting the wrappings on her arm furthest from the boy, unable to see Jak's eyes with her head turned away.

It was hard to ignore the devious glint in his blank eyes, the fact that a corner of his mouth was beginning to rise in a smug smirk, or the way that he was preparing to pounce on the unsuspecting girl not even a foot from him.

"Hey cherry-" Sig called out to her, causing her to turn her head toward him, wanting to get her out of range of the 'predator' partially restricted to the booth he was sitting in. Torn took this opportunity to take Jak's drink and throw it in his face, hoping to causing a diversion that would either bring the boy back to his senses or give Keira enough time to run.

The blond man blinked; the black shrinking back into his pupils as his irises returned. Keira turned her attention back to the aforementioned man, obviously not overly concerned with the fact that in the right light Sig could make one of the Metalhead skulls look like it was winking.

"Um, that's interesting- Whoa, what happened to you?" She quipped, looking down at her 'best friend' with an eyebrow rose in question. Liquid dripped from the tip of his nose and onto the front of his now mostly soaked tunic, revealing that his glass had been mostly full. Torn coughed.

"I sneezed." He said quickly, hoping to cover up the incident she'd failed to notice. Surprisingly, the Tattooed Wonder hadn't gotten Keira wet, save for the small splattering on one of her gauntlets. She made a face when he said this, a mix between confusion and slight disgust. He began stuttering then, not overly anticipating her suspicion. "_Really_ hard. And uh, my drink. It exploded. But it was _really_ quiet, you probably didn't hear it. Oh. Well. Yeah, sorry."

"Well, gesundheit then." She replied, a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth. She kept speaking to him, but Jak's attention was elsewhere, namely her lips, her eyes, anything other than her words really. Even her ears. Had he mentioned that her hair looked especially nice today? What if he could just smell it or- Oh geeze.

"Smooth Casanova." Orange Lightning muttered to his friend, eyeing Keira and judging both of their movements. He looked back at his drink, quietly mourning the monetary loss he'd suffered from a lack of customers and his friends drinking all of his booze and what not for free. Pfft. Ah well, at least Jak wasn't going insane or about to attack Keira, so maybe there was a chance that he'd been able to calm down. Or maybe nothing weird was going to happen, so, ah. Well. At least Jak wasn't trying anything, so maybe he wasn't going to-

"-and hey, what happened to your forehea-"

"Jak no!"

Oh. Maybe was.

* * *

**A/N:**Hmm... meh... blah. Yeah. Don't ask how I came up with the idea, because I really don't know. All I can say is that I was bored and this came to mind. (Haha.)

So! This was just a joke really, because I'm pretty sure that Dark Eco was in fact the only thing that Jak got into his system in prison, and there really is no way Jak would go into heat now if he hadn't before. (I'm pretty sure it's annually, but I really don't know and like I said this story is jsut a joke.) "Maybe it's because you're calmer now." --That is my defense, thanks to Daxter. And I was bored, that's my back-up.

And it's another way of my saying (Dark)Jak totally wants Keira. Meheheh. xD (Because animals claim their mates -normally by smelling weird to us, but somehow 'awesome' to others. Ah well.)

(I apologize for any confusion about the ending! I went back and changed a few things, so now it's, sort of worded better. Basically at the end it was supposed to be Daxter assuming that Jak wasn't going to ...'pounce' on Keira after all, seeing how Torn had already thrown a drink at him and sort of calmed him down.  
But of course, Daxter's theory was wrong.)

So.... yeah.

XD


	2. That's Some Too Shy Bad Romance There

**A/N:** Alright class, y'all ready for this? |D After …so many months I finally got around to finishing this, having to deal with the fact that I had no idea what to write after I got about ¾ of the way through this Part 2. Now it's done. Well that, and I wanted to finish some stuff I already have up here before breaking the ten-story mark.

Still featuring (Dark)Jak in heat, an amused Torn and Daxter, a not so amused Jak, and a generally confused Keira. Because I don't have much else to say, just have this in mind as your fun-fact for the day:

_Murphy's Law_: Everything that Can Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong at the Worst Possible Moment

**Heat:** typically describes an animal that is in a state of... 'excitement' and ready to breed.

_Hey girl, move a little closer_… ;D (Too SHY SHY, HUSH HUUUSH how do you not know this sooooong?)

Yes, _Bad Romance _(Lady Gaga)and _Too Shy _(Kajagoogoo) were listened to well writing this. (Don't judge meee… D;)Can you tell what parts they influenced?

* * *

_In which Green means Go, Red means Stop, and Purple means…Oh Crap.  
Rah rah rah –a-ah, Gaga…Oh _la la_._

The next thing he knew, Jak was being restrained by Torn, who was keeping him trapped within the small confines of the booth, blocking what brief access he had to Keira, who in turn had been pulled back by Sig with an utterly bewildered look on her face.

"What's going on?" The petite woman exclaimed, trying to fight her way out of Sig's rather large arms. Jak blinked uncomprehendingly at the man holding him back, chancing an innocent smirk he hoped would convey some sort of apology. Or simply just confuse or irritate his elder.

"I wasn't going-" He swallowed, suddenly feeling out-of-place under Torn's narrow-eyed scrupulous gaze. "Look, you, you've gotta believe me- I swear I-"

"Yeah, sure," Was all the tattooed man said in his reply, not noticing that behind him both Ashelin and Tess had come closer to Keira, forming a small shield of sorts, composing half-human, half-ottsel. Along with the large man holding the mechanic away from the hero, they struggled to remove her from said boy's gaze while she fought back.

Of course, Jak's eyes had zeroed in on her again, and in the moments that followed, well, it would be easier to say everything all but hit the fan.

Seeing his 'crush' –or, more or less, his 'claim' as she could be called at the moment, given the circumstances- in what part of him perceived as eminent peril did not bode well with the young man. In fact, Torn hardly knew what hit him when the blond boy abruptly leapt forward, shoving the former out of his way before making a beeline in Keira's general direction.

Not that it was hard to ignore nearly being tackled by man roughly his size, but the tactician wasn't going to let Jak get at the poor girl who had no idea in the slightest as to what was happening. It just took him a while to regain his focus as a result.

With a war cry of his own, Daxter made his existence known once more as he leapt at the slowly darkening boy, landing on his head and clamping his furry hands over the normally cerulean eyes that had once more gone black.

Letting out a roar in response, Jak halted in his tracks, his hands flying his face. The normally small nails had begun to grow into the claws that had once caused a few grown men to wet themselves, something Daxter soon found himself face-to-face with.

"Yeesh!" He muttered as he flattened his ears against the top of his head, narrowly missing the talons that swiped the air just above him. He blinked in shock as a few strands of fur landed on his nose before drifting down into his friend's now grayish-purple hair. "Okay, not cool buddy."

The momentary pause in Jak's hormone/dark eco/unknown substance/whatever the hell it was-fueled march was all the time the others needed. Although, they probably would have been more successful in getting Keira out of the vicinity, had Daxter not almost dropped off of Jak's head for fear of getting clawed in the face or unwillingly shaved. His small fists held bunches of purple hair in order to keep his furry body from plummeting to the ground, letting out his own snide remarks under his breath.

Torn, having finally come to his senses after being smacked square in the face was frowning at what was often referred to as 'Dark Jak' while the other three had managed to move Keira to the other side of the communications board opposite Jak.

Now completely ignoring the fact that his best friend was clawing at his scalp, the aforementioned boy was beginning to make his way toward the girl once more, his eyes narrowing at the one-eyed man holding her a few inches off the ground defensively.

Jak had been making somewhat decent headway until his forehead cracked against the hard floor of the bar.

"Ow! What the-!"

Torn had resorting to tackling the half-witted hero, succeeding in bringing him to the ground and knocking what sense he could back into him. The horns and claws had receded, so there was some sign of improvement. He was still lavender through, which may have served as a problem were he ever to go out in public again. A portion of him wanted to breathe a sigh of relief and assume that this whole ordeal was over, but his logical and more battle-hardened side told him this was no where near over, and in fact, it was just the opposite.

Jak was hissing on the ground and clutching his forehead when Torn got up and crouched down next to him, placing one of his thin hands on the other's shoulder-guard protected joint.

"And stay down." He muttered, having gotten some compensation for being hit in the face. The response he got was a grunt.

And then, as per usual, it was all shot to Kingdom Come.

"You can put me down now!" The uncertainty was clear in the girl's voice, revealing her confused wonder and slight fear. The others had yet to fill her in on what was going on, so she was frustratingly out of the loop.

"_Let her go!_"

While garbled as Jak flitted from his normal self to his darker self, the fury in that voice served to widen the eyes of everyone in the bar; their minds attempting to quickly reassess the situation. Purple electric lines crackled around the figure as he stood, casting the place in a purple hue that any other time would have been breathtaking. Now however, it only served to heighten the panic felt by most in the room.

His black eyes narrowed as his hands clenched into fists, increasing the amount of raw power felt radiating off of him. He'd taken a few angry steps around the large circular board his comrades had circled, all too paralyzed to move. Torn had no plans to tackle the Dark Warrior again -instead he remained on the floor for the time being, his arm extended to where the other boy had been just moments before.

Sig's good eye seemed to have been the only one truly watching Jak –he was a Wastelander and knew just how to fully assess a fight, after all. He'd seen Metalheads practically the size of the Naughty Ottsel, but like the others, he had no idea how to proceed with the man coming at him. Daxter picked his head up off the floor from where he'd been thrown after Torn had tackled Jak, letting out a groan.

"Well that wasn't pleasant," He muttered as he shook his furry head, the straps of his goggles smacking his neck. He scrunched up his face a few times to get feeling back into it when he noticed the dark boy now making decent headway toward his target, who was being carried around the circular table. "Okay, not good."

"_I said let her go!_"

Tess just about peed herself at the contorted face of the man who had only recently saved the world. His lips were pulled back in a snarl, and Sig was seriously debating dropping Keira like a hot rock and hightailing it out of there. The girl in question was still squirming slightly, eyeing her childhood friend warily and still wanting to be put back on the ground, rather than being held up nearly two feet in the air.

"Um, maybe you better do what he says." Torn said with uncharacteristic uncertainty. Ashelin nodded curtly at this as she and Sig took another few steps back as the Dark Warrior continued to approach. He paused in his movements as Sig momentarily released his hold on the wriggling girl and nearly dropped her on the ground. She let out a slight 'oof' as she hit the floor, grabbing the edge of the circular table to maintain her balance. Jak just about to reach for her when a movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Regarding Sig with his flickering black eyes, the corner of his lip rose in an angry sneer once more. His clawed fingers flexed, almost as if he were prepared to attack the man that he been recently holding his claim hostage.

"_Hey!_"

A small shot glass that had been tilted precariously on a shelf beneath the bar fell to the ground and shattered as a result of the sudden -and _loud_- outcry. No one even flinched, focusing completely on the once amusing notion of Jak being in 'heat'. Taking another miniscule step toward Keira, Jak and the others turned their attention to the furry ottsel. His chest heaving from his outburst, Daxter pointed his finger accusingly at the Dark Warrior.

"Didn't…Didn't I tell you," He took a deep breath along with a pause before continuing. "Jak, we talked about this, remember? The real way to hit on a woman and win her heart? Corny pick-up lines that hardly ever work? Making a complete fool of yourself? Hey, I'll give you props for looking like a pretty big idiot right about now, but you're losin' points for that whole 'being in heat' excuse you've got going." He shook his head, squinting at the purple boy who merely narrowed his eyes in response. "Look, if you were really in heat, this woulda happened a couple times over the past few years, and wouldn't just be starting right _now_." He paused. "Or maybe it _did_ happen a few years back, and I just didn't notice it."

Jak gave him a pointed look of sorts.

"Holy-" Daxter gaped as his arm fell loosely to the side. Tess plopped down on the hologram table and Torn blinked as the three processed the information Daxter had just received. "It _did_? _When?_"

Jak blinked.

"…Last year? During the…" Daxter studied Jak's expression for a moment, before his eyes flicked to the teal-haired girl and back. "During the races? Really? But I thought-" How Daxter understood his friend was a wonder in itself. "You mean…What, when she said-?"

Jak's chin tilted downward. Either a curt nod, or a silent sneeze.

"And then you-? And you walked away-? But then after I raced you came back and you-?" The purple man tilted his head to the side and narrowed his ebony eyes, clearing displaying his annoyance with his best friend's extended revelation. "I thought you were just mad about what she said, but I guess that wasn't all, was it?" The eyes narrowed a bit further.

Torn was the first to break to extremely short silence that followed. "How the _hell _did you understand any of that?" He hissed at the ottsel who was giving his friend a dumbfounded look.

"He was mute for a long time. You'd have to figure out a way to communicate with someone who doesn't talk, _Torn_." Daxter muttered, keeping his gaze leveled with Jak's.

Pleased with the fact that the interruption had ended the Dark Warrior turned around swiftly, beginning to close the gap between he and the confused girl. Daxter protested, claiming that his work wasn't done, though he was dismissively ignored by Jak.

"No! Bad Jak, bad! Stay! Heel! Stop moving!" Daxter's shouts obviously had little impact on the purple boy, as zeroed in on his... 'target,' as it were. All Keira could do was stare as her childhood crush strode closer with each breath they all collectively took. "Jak! Listen to me dammit!"

"Freeze! _That's an order!_" The ottsel's mouth hung agape along with just about everyone else's, save for the one being yelled at by the Commander's stern tone. Torn now stood to his full height, his back stiff and gaze penetrating the front of the purple boy's skull. Ashelin almost smirked.

"Don't you take another step."

As if purely to antagonize him, Jak's foot inched toward Keira.

"Dammit! Stay. Put!" The corner of Jak's mouth inched into a haughty smirk, but quickly dissolved when Torn jabbed an accusing finger at him. The others all froze in place in muted shock, quietly observing what had been coming for a long time. To be honest, Jak partly deserved the reprimand he was getting.

"I have dealt with enough crap for the past few months, let alone _years_, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let you add more to that heap. You and your excuses –hell, I don't care if you were mute for most of your life. I don't care that you just started talking last year, but now is definitely the time to start! Use your words dammit!" Torn swept an arm across the scene to emphasize his point.

"You are an annoying little twit, do you know that? Too damn stubborn and thick-headed for your own good, which yes, I'll admit that that's a good thing, but only once in a blue moon." He slammed his fist down on the communication board, causing Tess to leap off it and collide with Ashelin, who only just managed to catch her before she hit the ground. "Right now, yes you have to be a bit persistent to get what you want, but this is _not the way to go about it_."

"I've put up with enough of your crap. Either you cut it out right this minute, or the next you'll be on the floor wondering what the hell you were thinking in the first place."

It was silent for a moment, save for the angry panting sounds Torn was making. Jak's head cocked coyly to the side out of pure spite.

"That's ah…That's really helpful Torn." Daxter muttered as Jak slowly backed toward Keira with an animalistic and haughty look on his face.

"Figured it was worth a shot. Just a whole bunch of BS, but I thought it could do something."

"Oh it's doing _something_ alright," Ashelin stated, highlighting the fact that Jak was closer to an increasingly confused Keira than ever before.

"Knock it off. You're not in heat." Torn shot at him, Jak staring him dead in the eye- though in all honesty it was quite unnerving when he looked at someone in this state –what with his eyes being pupil-less making it difficult to tell just what he was looking at.

Daxter's eyes shot up to the ceiling as he shook his head. "No, he actually kind of is."

"How would you know that? For all we know it's just so excuse for what he's doing now." Torn glanced at the ottsel out of the corner of his eye before his gaze shot back to Jak, having froze the moment Torn had said the dreaded and embarrassing H-word.

"Because I'm a magical leopluradon," Daxter said sarcastically, keeping an eye on his two friends while waving a rude gesture at the Tattooed Wonder. "How the hell do you think? He's my best friend, and I'm an _ottsel_. Put two-and-two together. I _know _these things."

No one really wanted him to elaborate on this. The image itself was enough.

While Daxter had a somewhat decent argument, Torn was still fairly fed up with the situation and how it was going. Not that he wasn't still somewhat freaked out by the fact that Jak had 'gone dark,' but he figured he ought to put an end to this. By force if he had to.

Because _that_ plan worked out _so _well.

The moment he moved toward Jak, the latter interpreted it as a threat, releasing a low snarl and shifting into a defensive position, Keira now standing, bewildered, behind him. Her eyebrows creased as she processed what Torn had just said about Jak just as he prepared to take a swing at the Commander.

"Jak, no! Don't!" With a worried cry, Keira flung herself as Jak's back to keep him from participating in the smack-down about to occur, instead finding herself with her chin on his shoulder and her arms wrapped around her childhood friend's –along by now it was pretty obvious that some part of him wanted more- neck, once more suspended in the air due to the four inch height gap between them. "That… didn't quite go as planned," She murmured into the fabric of his shirt. Loosening her grip she plopped back down to the floor.

Unfortunately, that hardly seemed to faze him. Her next action however, did.

Letting out a startled yelp that morphed into an annoyed grimace, which quickly evaporated into curiosity and confusion as Jak whirled around to face Keira. Because she couldn't exactly reached over one shoulder and then easily touch the other side of his face from where she stood, she's meant grab his chin and turn him to her in order to reprimand him for whatever the hell was going on.

But she hadn't meant to grab the ashen goatee jutting from his chin.

"I'm sorry!" She sputtering, granting him an apologetic look. "I didn't mean to do that, I just didn't want you to…you know, kill Torn." His pupil-less eyes blinked at her. "Because we shouldn't kill Torn, and I'd appreciate it if someone told me what was... going...on…"

Lips trembling at an alarming rate as she formed unspoken words, Keira suddenly found herself with her face mere inches from Jak, hushed by the fact that he seemed to be leaning closer to her out of curiosity. Oh, and by the fact that well, it was Jak.

Staring blankly at the bridge of his nose, Keira felt him gently press his forehead to hers, seemingly letting out a quiet sigh of relief as his eyes slid closed. His nose twitched softly, taking in her scent as she froze, the only sound in the room being the clack his nails as they came into contact with one another.

Jak's nose twitched again.

As slowly as they could, Ashelin and the others began backing away from the two, leaving Sig to essentially stand guard. Tess whispered something into Daxter's ear, and in turn he watched his friend for a moment before shrugging. Torn shook his head at Ashelin who only rolled her eyes.

The silent exchange of thoughts through gestures was abruptly interrupting by the shocked gasp that put them all on edge, their attention immediately snapping back to Jak and Keira.

Jak's hands had shifted to carefully hold Keira's arms just above her elbows, seemingly intent of exploring the side of her neck with his nose. Her eyes widened as her face contorted, another sound escaping her mouth.

"Did he bite her? What happened?" Tess hissed to Torn, who shook his head, just as clueless as she was. Keira let out another 'eep.' Sig subtly shifted his hold on the Peacemaker so that the butt of the gun was in the air to be used as a club, while its mouth gawked at the floor.

It took them a few moments to realize that Keira was giggling.

"Knock it off!" She stuttered through laughter –though Jak seemed to have other plans, despite her attempts to shift out of his already fairly loose grip. Her head tilted to the side and raising her shoulder, and she was successful in squishing Jak's face into the crock of her neck. A low rumble resonated from his chest, resembling a chuckle as his goatee brushed against her collarbone was more, resulting in another giggle. "J-Jak! Stop it!"

"While this is…slightly awkward." Tess murmured. Daxter draped an arm across her shoulders while the two ex-KG folded their arms simultaneously.

"Nah, it's only awkward if you let it be." There was a pause, and he was given a blank look by the four currently not involved with the scene on the other side of the room. "Holy crap, this _is _awkward."

"We should probably leave them to it…" Torn muttered, waving his hands for the others to follow him out the door. Shuffling quietly behind him they all congregated at the door, watching for Sig to finally make his way over from where he stood closest to them. They all nodded to one another, agreeing on the idea that they would all remain somewhere in the Port if Jak got too out of hand.

The door slid shut with finality and a gentle echo, snapping Keira back into reality.

"They left." She murmured, almost with a hint of loss or betrayal at being left alone in her confused little bubble with Jak, who only mumbled into her neck in response.

"Mmm…"

The claws and horns slowly receded as his pale complexion darkened into the tan and scarred skin she'd grown up with. One arm had snaked around her waist in an attempt to keep her from pulling away. Instead she leaned back slightly, her hands now resting on his shoulders. He blinked as his body jerked and his stumbled while reverting back into himself. He blinked a few times as the darkness faded from his eyes. One of Keira's eyebrows quirked.

"Mind explaining what that was?" Jak's head ducked as he chuckled shamefully in embarrassment. As a side note, he had actually called Keira in the first place due to the JET-board acting up, but, beggars couldn't be choosers for moments like these, could they?

"Ah ha…I was in heat?" Keira frowned slightly, though he could see the laugh in her eyes. She shook her head, as if recalling a memory, which Jak observed with an amused expression.

"Well that's funny…" She shifted closer to him as his arm tightened, pressing his lips to her forehead.

"How so?" He muttered against her skin there with a growing smirk, already knowing what was coming. He pulled away and replaced his mouth on her forehead with his own in order to look her in the eye with his bemused grin.

"Isn't that what you told them last year?" She gave him a coy smirk of her own, both amused at the situation and partly in awe of that fact that the others still hadn't figured it out yet.

Jak let out a chuckle and gently pressed his lips to her for the first time in months, but of course not without muttering,

"Hell, they'll never know the difference."

* * *

**A/N:** Jak is liar! D:

So just so he knows: "Liar, Liar Pants On Fire" translated into French and back comes back to say "Teller of Untruths, Your Trousers Have Combusted". (Or so says MLIA. xD)

This obviously wasn't the original ending, but by the time I got to it, I wanted to put a little twist on it, just throw you all off it. All…five of you that read it at least.

And it is a bit ambiguous I suppose. You can decide whether or not they've actually done anything like this before, though, well, keep yer mind outta the gutter. I'm not trying to imply any of that stuff, unless that's how you interpret that.  
-This is amusing, you're listening to me ramble? Right then.-  
But I don't write that kind of stuff. Yet. Maybe. Give me five years. Or whenever I'm comfortable writing that stuff. Which I probably won't be. Yet. Ack. I shouldn't have said that. Never mind, I never did. xD;

ANYWAY. Ended on a JakxKeira note nonetheless, and leaving no one the wiser.

-Would you believe that original ending was just him reverting back to Jak with an 'um, whaaa?' response due to him having no idea what was going on?  
-And would you believe that ending that I'd come up with before deciding on this one including Sig knocking Jak out?

But you see how this is. I'm glad it's finally finished, and thank you for sticking with me. :D


End file.
